Next Up: Volleyball Hosts Rival Southern Miss
Oct 18, 2011 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 18, 2011
Season Statistics | Conference USA Weekly Release
10/19/11
Tulane Green Wave hosts Southern Miss Golden Eagles
Start Times: 7:00
Arena: Fogelman Arena (New Orleans)
Series Information: Tulane Leads, 44-8
GameTracker & Live Video Available
Looking at the Green Wave
It wasn't the result that the Green Wave was looking for when they posted a 1-1 record last weekend, but this will be another big week for Tulane. Tulane will reach the midway point of the conference season with three C-USA matches on the slate. Southern Miss will begin the week at Fogelman Arena, followed by a Friday matchup in Orlando, Fla. with UCF, before the Olive and Blue return home to face UTEP.
Cori Martone has been the offensive pacesetter this season for the Green Wave, owning a team-best 182 kills and 229 points. She is averaging ten kills a match over her last five appearances, including 18 versus Marshall and 12 against East Carolina last weekend. Milica Jovic and Izabela Grot both had efficient attacking efforts versus ECU to end last week, posting hitting percentages of .481 and .611, respectively.
Nikki Osuna continues to anchor the back row for the Green Wave and has posted the match-high dig total in seven of the team's eight Conference USA matches. She tallied 30 digs at Rice to open C-USA play and had posted double digit digs in 14 straight matches, before tallying just eight against East Carolina on Sunday.
Mel Mandelbaum continues to move up the career assist charts, ranking tenth with 1,372 helpers. She is just 102 shy of moving into eighth place, currently held by Shelly Wolfe (1996-97), and just 124 away from Angie Smith (1989-92) in the seventh spot on the list. The sophomore paces the squad with 393 assists this season, just ahead of Lilly Wolfe who has 311 in 2011.
Scouting the Golden Eagles
Southern Miss is the top digging team in Conference USA, so they will look to keep the Green Wave off balance with their defense. The Golden Eagles average a C-USA best 18.08 digs per-set, over one dig per-set more than the second place squad, SMU. That number is helping USM limit their opponents to the second lowest attacking average in the conference (.167). One of the reasons that Southern Miss enters with a 9-11 mark, 3-5 in Conference USA, is due to their lack of offense. They sit ninth in hitting percentage (.177) and are eighth in total kills (942).
Junior Halie Ecker paces the squad with 213 kills this season and she is one of five players to collect 100-plus digs (135). Four other players have topped the 100-kill plateau, with Ashley Mell (170), Lauren Sears (158), Amelia Hendrickson (147) and Sarah Jane Bowden (123) all topping the mark. Kelsea Seymour leads the team with 740 assists and Lisa Knecht, the reigning C-USA Defensive Player of the Week, paces the squad with 359 digs.
--TulaneGreenWave.com--
